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Used Microsoft Licenses For Sale
An anonymous reader writes "A secondhand dealer in Britain has been given the green light by Microsoft to resell software licenses from insolvent or downsizing companies, ZDNet is reporting. The reseller, Disclic, is legally allowed to sell the licenses at a discounted rate of between 20 percent to 50 percent, much lower than Microsoft's resellers. Partners of the software giant have expressed unhappiness over the issue as it undercuts their business. "I've never heard the like, and I am stunned," said Gordon Davies, the commercial director of Microsoft reseller Compusys. "This is clearly going to take away revenue from the channel and from Microsoft," he said."
Gee thanks, Bill, for telling us what we're legally allowed to do with the product we bought from you.
Take your useless support and shove it. We bought the right to use your rotten code, we bought the right to resell it for whatever we can get. We're Americans you fascist SOB.
You may be the richest man on Earth, but you're still a lying, cheating, two-faced, fuckwad... And your mother drinks elderberry wine. You have earned the right to be first at the guillotine.
What I'm trying to say is FUCK YOU.
I don't think you understand how the Microsoft Channel Provider system works. The largest part of that channel and collectively the largest retailer of Microsoft software is the humble mom and pop store. The big sellers get huge discounts while the small shops pay something very close to retail and manage to sell $400 software packages. The times are changing, it seems and Microsoft is slapping them in the face.
Historically, Microsoft pushed their software through the likes of Dell but supported it through a network of local shops. There is no real way for the "majors" to service all of the stuff they sell outside of contracting local firms to send to large businesses. Dell has no physical presence and people like Gateway who tried that lived to regret it. Places like ComUSA are a joke. Fixing M$ bugs and "making it work" in the real world has and still falls on everyone else. The dirty work of saving data files, wiping and reloading windoze has always gone to family members or local shops. It is there, at the local shop that people pay $99 for the retail version of Windoze because they lost or never had their "original" CD and don't want to buy a new computer.
Shaking up the channel network is the biggest change M$ has made to it's business model since dumping VB. I imagine they realize they won't be able to sell $400 packages which contain little more than a productivity suite and email client with a spell checker. They might also realize that computers are so cheap, people will just buy new ones (Good for me but not Earth friendly!) The local mom and pop store already makes next to nothing by selling the software and most of it on servicing it. This, however, will make them look like fools or thieves. Worse, it will legitimize those horrible spammers who sell pirated Windoze and further disintegrate what's left of the chain of trust that starts at Redmond and ends at the local store. It's a kick in the teeth to people who have already been treated poorly.
Microsoft is really a company whose business model ran out of steam and is flailing for a new one. Outside of the DRM lockdown nightmare world of "Trusted Computing" they have none. Free software now does everything M$ can and more better than M$. Good bye and good riddance.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Absolutly nothing. Microsoft doesn't care much about the lost revenue on the sale. They're looking at the big picture: